Transitioning

Well, it has been just a little over 2 weeks now since I took this photo on the airplane.  You know what that means...  I had to leave behind my DH and dear, sweet son.  The good news is that I am now in my FINAL semester at college and once I have that degree in hand, I have high hopes of getting a Visa so we don't have to go through these separations.  So, hopefully, this is the home stretch.  I just have to stay focused and get through this final semester, right?  It isn't ALL bad, Cape Cod IS my home and I love being near my sisters.  I really LIKE school (wouldn't say love, but I do enjoy it very much and will miss it in some sort of odd way when I am done).  AND... I DO have a return ticket for a quick visit.  Because... well, I missed my airplane to leave and had to buy an entire new round trip ticket - hence I have a return ticket, but still no new ticket to get me back to Boston... watching airfares and hoping that it works out for me.

School Boy's "Cowboy Cactuses" (or cacti - however you prefer the plural of cactus).  They have a FUNNY story!  He really wanted one, but look how big they are.  We WALK to the grocery store and when we buy groceries, we have not extra room for a huge cactus.  So, we didn't get one.  Then Omi (son's grandmother) gave him some money for Christmas and, surprise - he REALLY wanted a cactus.  So, off we go to the store to see if they had any left.  It appeared that they did not, so we bought a few things and were in the check-out lane when he spotted these 2 in the corner.  Oh happy dance, jump for joy, clap hands - believe me, everyone could tell that he was very happy about something and he raced right over there and grabbed one and brought it back triumphantly to the line-up.  We were next so we put it on the conveyor belt and then the manager ran over and gave us the other one - said it was a special that day - buy one, get one free!  Ha ha - there is NO SUCH thing in Austria - I think they were just in the corner to be thrown away that night and the guy could see how happy my son was with it, so then we ended up with TWO, which we had to figure out how to carry all the way home.  I bought 2 large paper bags with handles (you have to buy ANY bag from the grocery store, even the cheap, plastic ones) and we carefully put 1 in each bag and got them home. So, that is the story of how we now have 2 "Cowboy Cactuses" living on our kitchen counter.

School Boy LOVES plants!  Here is his little collection that he was moving around from sunny spot to sunny spot when I left.

And the spider plant that he gave me 5 years ago for Mother's Day.  It used to be a tiny, little sprout of a thing!  We have a neighbor take care of it for us if we are away.  This plant is my son's pride and joy, let me tell you!  He takes very good care of it which is a good thing because plastic plants were invented for people like me.  I only remember to water them when they are to the point of death and then I drown them.  My grandfather and a wonderful garden though so maybe my son gets his greenthumb from him - just skipped over my generation?

My last night there... and my son was finishing up his homework with his ever present Penguin.
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Yes, it is a very hard transition, but I have to remember what my Mom would always say when the going got tough... "keep your eyes on the prize".